Waterford Township travel agent under investigation after complaints

Penny Kane. She's in the middle of an investigation, accused of taking money from customers without providing travel services she promised. The photos were obtained from a message board that she created on meetup.com. One source told me there were close to 400 people in some of those message boards.

Penny Kane. She's in the middle of an investigation, accused of taking money from customers without providing travel services she promised. The photos were obtained from a message board that she created on meetup.com. One source told me there were close to 400 people in some of those message boards.

An investigation into the business practices of a Waterford Township travel agent suspected of swindling thousands of dollars from customers has grown to include more than 120 complaints and several civil lawsuits.

However, Penny Kane, owner of Penny's Personal Travel, who has declined to comment for this story, has not been arrested or charged criminally.

Though she is not charged with a crime, the township police chief asks that people not do business with her, citing repeated complaints that continue to come in. Officials report that an investigation into her travel business that has affected hundreds of residents is complicated and ongoing, and the Oakland County Prosecutor's office and federal agencies are helping with the probe.

"We've gotten thousands of pages of documentation from Waterford police ... and it's still coming," said Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper on Thursday regarding the investigation.

The most recent complaint against Kane was entered Wednesday, said top police officials.

As many Waterford Township-area residents await some action against the owner of the travel agency that apparently doesn't have a storefront or a website, Waterford police are saying: "We're doing everything we can."

The complaints began nearly two years ago, when people began calling police and the Southeast Michigan Better Business Bureau because they had either booked and paid for trips through Penny's and hadn't seen so much as an airport terminal, or that Penny was giving them only portions of the dream trips she had offered to customers.

Waterford Police Chief Dan McCaw said that 125 complaints to the department have been confirmed to date, with 75 percent of them including more than one victim.

"We're still receiving records from banks, creditors and financial institutions," said McCaw. "We expect upwards of about 20,000 pages of documents, reports and pieces of evidence."

Police have had daily contact with the prosecutor's warrants office to talk about the investigation into the business dealings of Penny's Personal Travel. With so many paper trails to follow, Cooper wants to make sure she can "cross all the t's, and dot all the i's," she said.

"Once a complaint is issued, we only have 14 days for a preliminary exam," Cooper said, "so it's better to be completely and totally prepared. ... There's still a lot ... to go over before we issue (a warrant) and are ready to go into a courtroom."

In early April, readers of The Oakland Press commented on a story published about the investigation. Anonymous reader "Gizmode" commented on an earlier quote from Waterford's McCaw: "'She's still meeting people at local businesses to collect money and book trips,' said the chief (April 2). 'We're warning people not to do business with her ... she's still out there.' ... So the question is, why is she still out there? Why is she still being allowed to take people's money???"

McCaw said he wants to make it clear that no entity is dragging its feet when it comes to this case. Kane has not been arrested because of the lack of a large criminal complaint pool, he said.

"Ninety-five percent of the complaints that police have handled appear to be civil cases," McCaw explained. "There aren't many cases dealing with criminal acts like credit card fraud or something like that."

In the 51st District Court, Kane failed to show up for two April civil hearings. She's scheduled to be in court on those defaults May 15 and May 22. According to court clerks, current civil cases against Kane have grown from three about a month ago to 10.

In circuit court, Kane has a larger civil suit filed against her by Waterford's Advanced Bag and Packaging -- a packaging and cushioning firm that contracts with automotive companies -- for more than $58,000.

The complaint alleges that money for a large company trip to Mexico was transferred into Kane's Huntington Bank account, but that Kane had failed to make good on all of her agreed travel arrangements.

"We're proceeding with litigation, and we understand that there are other people in the same position who are trying to collect money from (Kane), as well," said David Gunsberg, attorney for the packaging company. "The allegations in the complaint are correct. She promised that she would repay us, but she hasn't."

Kane submitted a response to the court in February, in which she denies most claims against her, noting: "Plaintiffs sought certain trips with pricing advantages that had expired," and "that Plaintiffs were informed that the prices were subject to change in the 'missing information' was not timely provided."

Further, Kane responded that the plaintiffs didn't provide a complete manifest with every person's travel arrangements.

Waterford's McCaw said he wants to update the public that Kane is still operating and that his department sees as many as three complaints come in each week. He encourages customers who have complaints against Penny's to continue to report them to the Waterford Police Department.

"I'm telling people not to spend another penny with Penny's Personal Travel service," said McCaw. He's also contacting state legislators to get stricter limits on what travel agents can do with a client's money, he said.

Kane was contacted Friday, but declined to comment on the investigation.